Kyoto, Nara, Uni

Week 8, w.b 18th November

Long one!

(S)

It's 6:30am and check-in is at 3pm. I'm quite cold (temps have suddenly dropped since arriving in Kyoto) and feeling like I might not make it without falling asleep somewhere random. We decide to drop our bags at the hostel and then get a coffee to boost energy levels. Elliot finds Komeda Coffee close by. I'm admittedly feeling grumpy and am struggling to keep my eyes open, but we stumble in. By lucky chance they have a breakfast deal which involves a free slice of toast with a topping and a side with every coffee before eleven. I get butter and egg salad. Elliot gets jam and anko. Then he gets another coffee just to get another slice of toast, jam and egg salad this time.

Since we hit up a lot of the main Kyoto attractions when we were here last year we took a more chilled approach to our trip. First we go to the Kyoto Shibori Museum, which is a tiny museum dedicated to the traditional dyeing method of shibori. There are some really amazing tapestries which took the makers almost two years to create. We spend a while looking at the intricate detail of the tapestries and listening to the makers talk about various techniques. Outside the museum, we see the owner of the museum and expert shibori-nin come out and water these baby acers. Very “perfect days”.

We then walk to the imperial palace gardens where we wander around, have lunch and kill a bit of time before check in. There was this massive tree in the middle of the park which had very powerful energy. A real “power spot” if you will, a phrase I learnt from one of our AirBnB hosts in Chichibu last year. The tree had lots of limbs that were being held up by wooden stilts, which is something I have seen a lot of since coming to Japan.

(E)

… and something I am a big fan of for some reason.

(S)

We sit down on a bench (or lie down in Elliot’s case) for a quick siesta. Elliot is snoring within seconds. After another nap following check-in we set off in search for food (again). We both have a hankering for Gyoza (Chinese style Japanese dumplings) so I find a spot on “Tabelog” - Japan's trip advisor for restaurants. We head over as it's only 10 mins away and alas, there is a LARGE queue of tourists. I'm guessing the place is insta-famous or tik-tok famous or something. We don't want to queue for food so we head off to our back-up option which involves a ride in a shady lift up to the fifth floor of a building. Immediately we are hit with the smell of cigarettes, delicious fried food and shouting of “Irashaiiiii”. We order a fairly modest amount for us and dishes come out one by one from the kitchen. This was a pretty great meal - I love places that serve small plates as it means I can try lots of different things. After some games at the local arcade we drift off pretty quickly.

(E)

On our second day, we head out to a lesser-known spot, a mountain in north-east Kyoto (Hiei-zan). A few trains later, and we are on the longest cable car (a “fernicular railway” in the UK), in Japan being pulled up a steep slope. The long views start to emerge over Kyoto. It ends halfway up the mountain, and it is suddenly colder. After wishing for some good luck by hurling some clay dishes off the hillside (I couldn't find anymore info on this, but you'll have to take my word for it), we continue to the top on the ropeway. By now, we can see the hills that surround Kyoto. They are carpeted in trees! I'm not gonna lie, once at the top, it was, initially, a little underwhelming. We continued to the top however and were greeted with amazing views over all of Lake Biwa and Otsu. We decided to walk a short section down, which also allowed for some amazing views as, after a slow start, the Autumn colours have started coming through.

This time of the year is also illumination season. Shrine and temples all over Japan are lit up at night with lights and music. After "umming" and "arring", we decided to go for it, and walked to a temple called Ko-dai-ji not far from our hostel. Little did we know that this temple was actually a pretty big deal, built by the revered Nene for her late husband Toyotomi Hideyoshi who are still celebrated in Japan to this day! We watched the illumination set 3 times, both noting our favourite parts (and what we would do differently lol). We took a further walk and found the bamboo forest. All in all it was a great time.

In the evening, I wanted a drink and Shion had the idea of finding a typical Japanese bar where they serve food (izakaya). After a hesitant start, we slid the door open at the unassuming spot in Pontocho. The bar was a standing bar with room for about 8 people. We were greeted by the bartender/chef, and some customers. One of them took a particular interest in us, as he had taken an English speaking course, and was a big fan of The Beatles. We ate chicken roll, wasabi-na, miso fish, and cod testicles. It was all really yummy. The atmosphere was really great, and cigarette smoke, and the low hum from a TV in the corner filled the air. It was a great night and we left really satisfied.

The following day, Shion got her long-awaited haircut, and we took the short trip to Uji, which is known for matcha which Shion LOVES. We took some short wanderings, grabbed a supermarket dinner and headed to bed.

For our full day in Uji, we went to a local shrine (in fact the oldest extant shrine in Japan) and viewing platform on a hillside (daikichiyama). We decided to continue the walk out of Uji for a little bit further. We ended up walking through a quaint little Japanese village, getting our cheapest vendy yet, and walking back along the river.

We walked the remaining stretch back into Uji in time for a well deserved late lunch. We hedged our bets on a tiny place across the river and it really paid off. We had yummy matcha soba, with main served with this dark marinated fish. It was a quiet and cheap spot hidden in plain sight of passing tourists.

For our checkout day in Uji, we visited the Byoudoin, one of the most sacred places in Buddhism. There was a wait of over an hour view the main hall which we didn't have time for but the outside and the museum was good. This was followed by a matcha-workshop where we could grind our own matcha from tzencha tea leaves. There isn't really anything in the UK that tastes like matcha. It's a bit more earthy than English tea, and less bitter. We used a grinder to turn the leaves to a fine powder before whisking the powder up with water into a creamy, green tea. It was really fun, and the result tasted so good!

(S) Next stop, Nara. We arrived in the afternoon, and headed out for a walkabout. We stumbled upon the deer park. We really wanted to eat our snacks but I was really scared that a deer would chase after me (based on a similar childhood experience in Japan) so we found a pavilion in the middle of a lake to eat. After that we got coffee at this awesome coffee shop. The madam used to run a club in Osaka back in the day and now ran this coffee shop in the side streets of Nara. It reminded me of a Ghibli film the way the shelves were all stacked and it had a sort of showa-era feel to it.

(E) Nara is famous for it's deer, though we were mainly there to see a friend we had met in 2023. We met Setsuko-san in the Kyoto Botanical gardens in 2023, and Shion has been emailing her ever since. We met her at Nara station and she had a full itinerary planned out, with lunch at 11:00 promising to be the star attraction. First, she took us around a Japanese Garden (Yoshikien), nestled next to the deer park. This place was really peaceful, and a lot quieter than when we visited the day after.

Next stop, her favourite theatre hall, with more gardens at the back that were practically empty, with the crowds of the deer park the other side. From here it was onto Todaiji complex, with views over all of Nara. She constantly apologised for her slow pace, but most of the time I was just trying to keep up. She really knocked it into 6th gear when she realised we might be late for her lunch spot, but we got there just in time. I had chicken, and Setsuko-san and Shion had tempura. It was all amazing, and as Setsuku-san highlighted "so cheap!!!”

She invited us back to her "mansion" (an apartment in the UK) and we spent the rest of the afternoon, walking round her local pond, flicking through her photo albums (that she dutifully placed infront of us), and eating kaki. As an ex-english teacher in Japan, she travelled to the University of Hull in the '90's to teach Japanese, exploring most of Yorkshire as well as other parts of the UK. She has also taught in Georgia (US) and New Zealand. Her photos of the UK felt really nostalgic, which is weird because I wasn't even alive when they were taken! "Anti-war" is a huge part of Setsuko-san's fundamental belief system. She speaks about it in a way others do not. She spoke briefly of her memories of the dropping of the Hiroshima bomb. I wanted to ask more, but didn't know how. If the conversation got too heavy, she was always there to lighten the mood with a smile, and more kaki!

(S)

Setsuko-san was really generous and a typical grandma. She bought lunch and dinner for us (despite our protests) and also got various snacks out while we were at her house: chestnut mochi, kaki, ginan, satsumas… She also insisted on giving us various things. A few postcards her sister had painted, some jewellery made from abolone shells she had bought in New Zealand and some chopsticks holders her friend had made. We kept saying “nooo noooo it's fine you keep them you keep them” but she would counter “I'll be dead soon so you might as well take them now”. Hard to argue with that. Although I don't think death is coming anytime that soon for her, she seemed in extremely good health (maybe owing to her two circuits around the lake every morning at 6:00, despite being 83!)

Before we left Nara for our next stop I really wanted to go back to Yoshikien for some more garden enjoyment. As our luck would have it, there was a free Koto performance from the Nara University Women's University Koto Club. We sat down bang on as they started and got to enjoy an hour of some classic Japanese tunes as well as some more modern pieces.